A report that a group of former Special Forces operators are going to denounce the partisan politicization of military victories were dismissed by an Obama campaign official as the squeaking of has-beens. “An Obama campaign official said: ‘No one in this group is in a position to speak with any authority on these issues and on what impact these leaks might have, and it’s clear they’ve resorted to making things up for purely political reasons.’” They would know. After all Obama campaign officials would know the real score right?

The OPSEC group says it is not political and aims to save American lives. Its first public salvo is a 22-minute film that includes criticism of Obama and his administration. The film, to be released on Wednesday, was seen in advance by Reuters.

“Mr. President, you did not kill Osama bin Laden, America did. The work that the American military has done killed Osama bin Laden. You did not,” Ben Smith, identified as a Navy SEAL, says in the film.

“As a citizen, it is my civic duty to tell the president to stop leaking information to the enemy,” Smith continues. “It will get Americans killed.”

The argument from superior knowledge has been extended to the administration’s dismissal of Israeli worries over Iran. AFP reports that “in remarks seemingly aimed at Israel, the United States said Friday it had ‘eyes’ and ‘visibility’ inside Iran’s nuclear program and would know if Tehran made a ‘breakout’ towards a nuclear weapon.” The source of the administration report was anonymous.

One might think that if the US truly had “eyes” and “visibility” inside Iran’s sanctum sanctorum then ‘they’ would not advertise the fact in the media. But what do we know? As ‘they’ said we are not “in a position to speak with any authority on these issues and on what impact these leaks might have”. We should let bigger brains solve the problem.

What do campaign officials have to do with setting people straight on national security issues? Well what did Valerie Jarrett have to do with the decision to launch the mission against Osama Bin Laden? Apparently, quite a lot. Karen McQuillan, writing in the American Thinker cites author Richard Miniter and Edward Klein, “former foreign editor of Newsweek and editor of the New York Times Magazine” as saying that Jarrett is

“ground zero in the Obama operation, the first couple’s friend and consigliere.” Klein — who claims he used a minimum of two sources for each assertion in his book on the Obama presidency, The Amateur — writes in detail about Jarrett opposing the raid on bin Laden. She told Obama not to take the political risk. Klein thought Obama ignored Jarrett’s advice. Miniter tells us he listened to her, three times telling Special Operations not to take the risk to go after bin Laden.

In in any case it implies that Jarrett knew about the planned raid beforehand.

Every insider in Chicago told Klein the same thing: Jarrett has no qualifications to be the principal advisor to the president of the United States. She doesn’t understand how Washington works, how relations with Congress work, how the federal process works. She doesn’t understand how the economy works, how the military works, how national security works. But she understands how Obama works.

The president turns to Valerie Jarrett for definitive advice on all these issues. She has given him terrible advice over and over, and still he turns to her.

The security game has been turned inside out these days. Some of us fear terrorism, but others fear counter-terrorism even more. Wikileaks says Abraxas sold a countersurveillance package to a number of large government and private organizations that use facial and other recognition technology to detect reconnaissance by terrorists intent on attacking their buildings. Another nail in the coffin of privacy, right. Well maybe privacy has been dead or has been dying for quite some time. And everyone has been in on it, from Big Brother to the hackers that supposedly protect us from Big Brother. Maybe the only distinction that now exists is between surveillers and the surveilled.

The surveillance experts at the National Security Agency won’t tell two powerful United States Senators how many Americans have had their communications picked up by the agency as part of its sweeping new counterterrorism powers. The reason: it would violate your privacy to say so.

That claim comes in a short letter sent Monday to civil libertarian Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. The two members of the Senate’s intelligence oversight committee asked the NSA a simple question last month: under the broad powers granted in 2008′s expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, how many persons inside the United States have been spied upon by the NSA?

The query bounced around the intelligence bureaucracy until it reached I. Charles McCullough, the Inspector General of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the nominal head of the 16 U.S. spy agencies. In a letter acquired by Danger Room, McCullough told the senators that the NSA inspector general “and NSA leadership agreed that an IG review of the sort suggested would itself violate the privacy of U.S. persons,” McCullough wrote.

Not that it matters any more. Consider: Kaspersky is asking for your, mine — anyone’s — help in cracking the encrypted parts of the Gauss malware package. Readers will recall that Gauss was found in Lebanese computers. The initial hypothesis was that it was aimed at Lebanese banks to spy on their transactions. Now it turns out that the big mystery is who it was aimed at in the first place. Gauss, as it turns out, is keyed to a very specific target.

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab in Russia are asking the public for help in cracking an encrypted warhead that gets delivered to infected machines by the Gauss malware toolkit.

The warhead gets decrypted by the malware using a key composed of configuration data from the system it’s targeting. But without knowing what systems it’s targeting or the configuration on that system, the researchers have been unable to reproduce the key to crack the encryption …

The payload is delivered to machines via an infected USB stick that uses the .lnk exploit to execute the malicious activity. In addition to the encrypted payload, infected USB sticks deliver two other files that also contain encrypted sections that Kaspersky has been unable to crack.

“The code that decrypts the sections is very complex compared to any regular routine we usually find in malware,” Kaspersky writes. Kaspersky believes one of these sections may contain data that helps crack the payload.

“The [encrypted] resource section is big enough to contain a Stuxnet-like SCADA targeted attack code and all the precautions used by the authors indicate that the target is indeed high profile,” Kaspersky writes in its blog post.

The payload appears to be highly targeted against machines that have a specific configuration — a configuration used to generate a key that unlocks the encryption. That specific configuration is currently unknown, but Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher with Kaspersky, says it has to do with programs, paths and files that are on the system.

Once it finds a system with the programs and files it’s looking for, the malware uses that data to perform 10,000 iterations of an MD5 hash to generate a 128-bit RC4 key, which is then used to decrypt the payload and launch it.

From these characteristics it is reasonable to infer that Gauss has been designed to take down something almost sui generis; definitely not the computer you can buy in the local electronics store. Furthermore, it is clear that whoever designed Gauss already had access to its specific configuration and have a deep understanding of the platform they intend to attack. Since only the target can turn the key, Kaspersky is crowdsourcing the decryption efforts.

Should you help? Well it all depends on who you think designed Gauss. And who you think Kaspersky’s efforts would benefit. The logical answer to both questions is we don’t know. If you crack the code you unmask the mastermind. But maybe we should ask the Obama campaign officials. They seem to know a lot about these things. Is that good or bad? Well I don’t know either. Lee Smith points out that we no longer live in a world with clear lines dividing “friend” and “foe”.

as Cairo marches toward what seems to be a Muslim Brotherhood monopoly, the real significance of Morsi’s latest move lies elsewhere, in Washington and Jerusalem, where differing perceptions of Egypt’s political crisis have made plain that the United States and Israel are not united on matters of the Middle East. Their different interpretations of regional developments—particularly how they perceive various threats—are forcing the longtime allies apart.

Over the last six decades, the U.S.-Israel relationship has had less to do with the personal inclinations of American and Israeli leaders than with the particular events that have cemented the alliance. From the Cold War and the need to protect the vast energy resources flowing through the Persian Gulf, culminating with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the strategic realities of the Middle East have kept Israel and the United States tied at the hip. That’s changing.

Perhaps we now live in a world of “they”. All we know is that “they” — whoever they are — are embarked upon policies that seem strangely independent of traditional national, religious or even ethnic boundaries. OPSEC’s criticism of the administration’s leak of classified information, extending Lee Smith’s argument, fails because their the former Special Operator’s quaint notion of national interest no longer coincides with the modern lexicon. National interest is now no longer obvious; instead it is whatever “they” want. Apparently only these anonymous few understand the real agenda, can apprehend the total picture and know where all the pieces are. As for the rest of us, none are in “a position to speak with any authority on these issues and on what impact these leaks might have.”

67 Comments, 67 Threads

1.
Don Rodrigo

OPSEC’s criticism of the administration’s leak of classified information, extending Lee Smith’s argument, fails because their the former Special Operator’s quaint notion of national interest no longer coincides with the modern lexicon.

Perhaps. But the argument “fails” in which environment? A majority of the American people still hold to the quaint notions that would find OPSEC’s points compelling and disturbing. If this has a “Swiftboat” effect on Obama, then so be it.

The ‘key’ is probably a chipset code. That is an old anonymous.org technique. Most serious nerds don’t have a case over their boards. It makes them easier to clean and to get to.
For a while I used E132706.1 which is part of the chip ID from and old T-10 board I keep handy. That is much better then writing things down and having spare boards laying around is nothing unusual. Purloined letter technique. Put it in plain sight and trust people to look for something hidden.
If I was doing the job, I would check out specialised Electronic gear. I used to have a book with chip-set numbers in it that I used when building custom circuits. That was decades ago. I’m sure it’s been bridged to CD by now. Don’t banks use specialised money counting machines that are automated? They will have chips in them.

Damn, I meant to put this the first post. Don’t Special ops travel by Swift Boat every now and then? 8 year intervals, maybe. The way the clown posse is ducking for cover, it would seem like the rounds are getting close.

This is turning into what should to be designated as “The Democrat’s Dilemma”.
Who ya gonna believe, liars or heroes? Tough choice. Gotta think about it another second or so. OK, we can vote for him again and expect a different result……. OR grow up.

Help me here. (I am a marginally knowledgeable user, with no IT expertise) Using my own simple personal systems as examples. Why would I use anything like LifeLock tm, Cloud Systems or etc? To do so means that I deliver my SSAN and bank account info to an outside data base, that then becomes a huge target. My solution is simpler and cheaper. Two (actually three) laptops. This one, my online machine, is just that. While inconvenient I care not if it is hacked. Personal financial/ private stuff, including details of my small consulting practice are on a different laptop, costing less than $1k and never, ever tied to internet, no way no how. I don’t even connect to my in home wireless system. I pay most bills with checks and stamps. Data from one system to the other (my weak point) is via sneaker net, using a memory stick and limited to transferring my own files, never a down load.

If I were, say, the armed forces, I would have layers of systems, with layers of connectivity. While personnel and even payroll data would be encrypted and netted together, hard stuff, like launch codes, would probably remain only on hard copy. I recognize that this is anathema to systems guys, who want/ need standard systems and who do not want to look up from keyboard and screen to work, OPSEC often requires seemingly curious steps.

In other words, IT may be reaching its practical limit, not due to technical limitations, but due to human limitations. The most obvious analogy being automobiles. Faster cars and closer intervals would be an improvement, but humans reactions can’t practically or safely function at higher speeds and near zero inter-auto distances.

An armed man, acting in what is being called an “act of domestic terrorism” shot a security guard while attempting to enter the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group, in Washington DC.

He allegedly made a political statement during the attack, although this is not confirmed. I will predict that when the attacker is finally identified any groups with whom he was formerly affiliated and whose views he espoused will deny any connection with him and we’ll be left with what we’re always left with: the “lone gunman”.

In a world of “they”, where cabals abound, any individual act will always be ascribed to “him”. And just him.

If Valerie Jarrett provides the code that directs the President’s actions, it seems we here at the Belmont Club have already, for some time now, crowdsourced the decryption of that malware package. I hope it’s not too late to save the system, but I am only optimistic at this point of a change in operational control come November. So, let’s be optimistic then, and fight for our country as if its future – and ours – depended on it.

Jarrett has no qualifications to be the principal advisor to the president of the United States. She doesn’t understand how Washington works, how relations with Congress work, how the federal process works. She doesn’t understand how the economy works, how the military works, how national security works. But she understands how Obama works.

Dang, I used to hear that same song about Nancy Reagan. But I don’t remember her being consulted on operational details like the Bin Laden raid. And Mrs. Reagan never developed a power base in Chicago politics, either.

Increasingly, the question is — who cares what “they” are saying? In a very real sense, “they” are less important to the great majority of the population than Kim Kardashian. Most of us don’t trust “them”; instead, we just ignore “them”.

Meanwhile, the Gods of the Copybook Headings are clearing their throats. Change — real change, fundamental change — is coming, inexorably driven by the Political Class’s unsustainable debt, whether “they” want that change or not. “They” are becoming steadily less powerful, and steadily less relevant. Perhaps the choice of many to focus instead on Kim Kardashian’s wardrobe is the real political statement these days.

I’ve left a message over at Dr. Rubin’s. On another matter, David Weigel at Slate has guidelines on how the Family Research Council shooting should be handled.

My policy on any shooting:

1) Don’t assume any hate group connections or political motivations until we find out more about the witness. You don’t want to wind up like Brian Ross.

2) Do keep track of how the shooting’s being politicized. I say “how,” because it’s inevitable, and in some cases it’s not all that bad. You won’t hear the NRA bemoan the mental health/gun buying law passed after the Virginia Tech shooting.

The reporter to follow for actual facts: Ryan Reilly. The factor to keep track of, if you want to see how conservative media will process this: The Family Research Center’s two-year-old designation as a “hate group,” issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC hasn’t responded to the developments in D.C. (I’ve asked), but I’m already seeing some sputter-and-point reaction blaming them — or just begging the question of blame — for what almost happened.

The politicization of every shooting, including Trayvon Martin’s, is now pretty much SOP. Its disturbing, but not for the reasons Weigel thinks. This tendency implies that two political confessions in America are now literally at each other’s throad. Glenn Reynolds has a link to how David Brock of Media Matters lives in fortress conditions escorted by armed retainers. His biggest fear is “right wing snipers” waiting for him when he goes out on his roof deck to smoke cigarettes. Some guys are wound up so tight they are practically vibrating. It’s not good and it won’t get better.

Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection notes that the Huffington Post didn’t get news of the shooting fast enough to modify their article, one which quotes sources calling the Family Research Council a hate group.

…extreme right-wing groups like the Concerned Women for America, Faith and Freedom Coalition, and the Family Research Council are also lauding Ryan’s hyperconservatism on social issues.

And in a sign that Paul Ryan has no qualms about flexing his anti-gay muscles during the campaign to those extreme groups, he has agreed to address the Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center deems a hate group, at the organization’s annual Value Voters Summit in September.

Now you’ve got to remember that the Two Minutes Hate is mostly for outer-party chumps. But that doesn’t mean they don’t get a real rise out of it. For some, hate and not love, is the most enjoyable emotion that there is. You can feel superior, empowered and absolutely justified in anything you do next. You should beware the hate group haters as much as any collection of haters. It ain’t the singer. It’s the song.

Rev. Harry Powell: [when he notices John staring at the words "love" and "hate" tattooed across his knuckles]

Ah, little lad, you’re staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E! You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man. The right hand, friends, the hand of love. Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life. Those fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one agin t’other. Now watch ‘em! Old brother left hand, left hand he’s a fighting, and it looks like love’s a goner. But wait a minute! Hot dog, love’s a winning! Yessirree! It’s love that’s won, and old left hand hate is down for the count!

Next question. Now that we are in the world of pronouns, and given that ‘I’ is unsustainable by myself, who are WE and how do we identify the WE?

(Stolen from Ed Driscol’s blog today. ‘The left is like the Borg, you’re assimilated and that’s the end of the story. New ideas are crushed and new thinkers are destroyed. There can be only one… thought that is.’ Maybe they are Borg. ta.

This little film was a sobering reminder regarding what is at stake in this election.

For a while there, it seemed from the discussion here, that it was Public Service Employees or unions or university Engineering professors who were the bigger enemy than the terrorists overseas, because our pensions cost too much or something.

And I am talking to you Mr. Fernandez for making the dustup in Wisconsin a year-long subject for commentary on these pages, as if a squabble over compensation of state workers rose to the level of seriousness of the other topics you have addressed here.

I would like to point out that everyone in that video was at one time a Public Service Employee, yes, one making much greater sacrifice than the minor adjustment in pension arrangements I am asked to make, but someone in government all the same.

But enough with the Ayn Rand demonization of anyone working for the government and enough with the scaring old people in Florida with the sabre rattling about how Medicare will lead to “welfare dependency” that will lead to gangs of menacing-looking oldies clumping through the streets with their canes. The deficits will take care of themselves if we can get a sensible energy policy and get the economy growing again. The kind of damage described in this video, on the other hand, is forever.

Before people get to lecturing me for not getting the seriousness of “the debt crisis” or “the entitlement crisis”, politics is about coalitions. The Republican coalition appears to be drawing an ever narrower circle around itself, and if that coalition loses in November, this video outlines the consquences.

Jimmy Carter famously leaked secrets about stealth paint back in his presidency. Negating the advantage of technical secrets seems to be DNC house specialty. By the way carefully placed sources in the White House have given me insight to the fact that there is an uneaten ham sandwich in the staff kitchen refrigerator. If there was a tuna salad sandwich, I’d certainly know.

“telling Special Operations not to take the risk to go after bin Laden” She probably reminded them also that they should have captured him at Tora Bora and should have not dissolved the Iraqi Army. But the very brave president risked his political career to further improve it. That is worthy of praise from a grateful nation. Certainly he is the example for American Exceptionalism that should convince ourselves that we should rewrite the Constitution so he can lead upon the path of righteousness.

Speaking of “They”, there was a time when the United States was nearly unified in its opposition to the Soviet Union and Red China. When I heard the other day that Russians were running their attack sub around in circles down in the Gulf of Mexico for over a month it didn’t bother me that much… certainly not as much as it used to. What are they going to do? Attack the communists in DC? Let them. They are no longer an enemy of freedom. That enemy who piss’s in the eye of democracy is firmly ensconced in Washington.

You have to pass it before you get to know what is in it. Name one damn thing that these jackals have passed in the last 4 years that wasn’t an outrageous attack against democracy or capitalism. “They” seek to protect the world from their charges, their servants by enslaving them to borrowed money given to the poor of foreign nations. The rule of law has been banished. We live in unsustainable tyranny.

I hope the Obama administration takes a swift boat back to Chicago and stays there.

The shooter is in FBI custody and has not yet been charged, authorities said. A law enforcement official said at one point in the scuffle, the shooter expressed views that differed from those of the Family Research Council. The official also said the shooter was carrying a bag that had a Chick-Fil-A bag inside. Chick-Fil-A’s chief executive has expressed similar views against same-sex marriage as the Research Council.

This is sad. I guess the lesson here is that there ought to be more gun control. But why not more idea control? No that won’t do either. One of the things that people are allowed to do, up and until the time they commit a crime, is to be in the possession of dangerous objects. An idea is as dangerous as a gun. Yet we choose to carry them, accepting the risk that they might cause someone to act in a crazy way.

Who goes into a lobbying office with a gun and a chicken sandwich he doesn’t even want to eat?

Paul,
Sorry if the impersonal has become personal but the problem is government spending. The government has refused to rein in spending. A major cost of government is its unrivaled workforce and the effects of millions of bureaucrats who make a living keeping small businesses from prospering. The GM “bailout” was not only an illegal theft from bond holders but it was downright evil. Here in California the public employee unions, in collusion with politicians, run this state for their sole benefit. They do not serve the tax payer.

“Stand for freedom. Stand with Pussy Riot.” yes dear Stoch, stand with the Sandra Flukes of Russia whom Masha Gessen the other day compared to the people who were murdered by Stalin. If they were Occupy kids in St. Patrick’s Cathedral tased and beaten by the NY or DCPD would you care? Of course not. Even conservatives get duped by the Soros-bots propaganda machine, at least if it’s about Russia.

Pardon me while I go throw up now. Blasphemy is cool. The Russian Orthodox Church is so square. It needs to be replaced with megachurch snake handling. Pravda is Putin propaganda even when it says things you agree with. Left is Right, Up is Down, War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength.

Valerie Jarrett might be Gorelick’s younger, dumber sister, because Jamie has managed to disappear over the horizon with money skimmed from Fannie and Freddie, not to mention hush money from Clinton’s for keeping quiet.
I’d be interested in who Sandy Berger has been advising lately.

What bothers me about these state sponsored viruses is that this level of sophisticated attack will eventually come to Americas shores–if they have not already.

As well, I would not be surprised if the USA or Israel or someone else were scraping Iranian computers so extensively that it would be well known among one or more intelligence community as to the progress of the Iranian nuclear program.

Likely too, if they have been scraping lebanese bank accounts, assuming– they– are either US or Israeli intelligence–they’ll have a pretty clear picture of the inter relationships of all the middle eastern players good bad and in between.

One of the drivers for change in the middle east is the shift of the center of gravity in the oil patch to the new world. Its only a couple years old and has many mile to go–but already it is changing underlying assumptions.

A second driver for change in the middle east was set off by the USA placing the shia in power in Iraq. That upset the balance of power among the shia/sunni religious factions in the middle east. The sunnis will pushs the shia alawites out of power to restore the balance.

A third driver for change in the middle east is end of colonialism/cold war. In the past middle easterners have been able to leverage outside narratives for advantage. Now they will have to create their own narrative with its own built in advantages. Which is where Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood islamic education comes in.

A fourth driver for change in the middle east is the muslim penetration of the both western europe and america. this warps things in wierd ways both for the west and for the muslim world. See driver #3

A fifth driver for change is the accelerating technological change coming from the west– principally the USA but also from asia and europe.

A sixth driver for change in the middle east is Israel. Israel does something very profound. Israel prevents the Moslems from retreating into the past. Israel prevents them from resting on their failures.

You miss the point. I’m not defending the message, I’m defending the messenger. Freedom of speech is essential to any free society. It matters not what the speech is.
So a bunch of really bad musicians call Pootie bad things. Don’t sweat it. So they like to fook in church. Sounds like Southern Baptists to me. Got lots of them down here. They are allright as long as you keep them away from machines more complex then a wheelbarrow.
If Pootie is feeling depressed, let him go down to the vault and count some of his stolen loot. The reason why Russia is such a sh1thole is guys like Pootie. With free speech, you could have gotten rid of him. Now you have to wait for the SOB to drop dead.

re: “An armed man, acting in what is being called an “act of domestic terrorism” shot a security guard while attempting to enter the Family Research Council ..” – Wretchard

It’s the NRA’s fault. This man wouldn’t be carrying a gun in Washington, DC if there were reasonable laws prohibiting citizens from possessing firearms. Oh, wait a second – did you say Washington DC has the most restrictive gun control laws in the country?

Nevermind.

Oh, well, we’ll just take away YOUR guns and that will prevent this sort of problem. [/sarcasm]

I don’t think you can have an intelligible conversation that include Sandra Flukes and Pussy Riot. (Though Wretchard might be able to pull something interesting out of the juxtaposition.)

Reminds me of a Mexican debate among a couple of candidates for some office I saw a couple months back. There were three men and a woman seated around a dias and a reporter off screen. They were going back and forth on some issue.

Then a woman came out to deliver them some notes of some kind. She didn’t say anything. Whatever her job was it was in keeping with the program. She was supposed to be some minor gopher. Someone you’re not supposed to notice.

But that’s not how it worked. The woman had deep deep hooters and a backside you could balance a plate on. She moved in such a way as to remind you of her joints. (She was in fact a former playboy bunny.)

Whatever was the discussion among the candidates suddenly seemed futile and pointless.

If Obama hadn’t bragged about killing OBL, there would be no traction for OPSEC. But like John Kerry, Obama couldn’t resist. Now it is being used against him.

And it should be. Obama, with no military background, micro-managed the effort. Instead of a couple impersonal 2000lb bombs, he put Seal Team 6 in and lost a helicopter. I think there is room for legitimate disagreement on the tactics used.

And Obama’s hubris is what has made him vulnerable. Obama doesn’t have the tremendous anti-war baggage that the Swifties used on Kerry. But if Obama had graciously placed the credit with the military, where it belonged, he wouldn’t be facing “Swifties” today.

“The president turns to Valerie Jarrett for definitive advice on all these issues. She has given him terrible advice over and over, and still he turns to her.

She lets him eat what he wants, when he wants and smoke too. She is his blanky and he turns to her for comfort and solace. I suspect she is his soul mate. Or maybe she is a female version of Col. House…

Is it only a fantasy or memories from old movies that once the would be aristocrats had at least Style going for them? The current crop are not only arrogant and incompetent but also incredibly vulgar. When I look at Michelle and Hillary and Pelosi etc I can’t help thinking that Lucretia Borgia and Catherine d’Medici had to be better. Jamie Gorelick was last seen on the Board of Schlumberger. Wire that into your Grand Unified Energy Conspiracy Theory.

David Brock was an unstable rent boy insinuating himself into the Right who discovered that the fancy uniforms and kinky benefits concession had moved to the Left so he followed. Soros may use him but I doubt that anyone is dumb enough to trust him.

Is anyone else aware that the NYPD has a rule that all employees who are not LEOs are prohibited from owning a gun and must provide proof that they have given up any weapons they own? Is this legal?

‘Family Research’ co-founder George Rekers was smeared (I’d guess willingly) with all manner of hidden perversions. Presumably FRC is a front group, one dedicated to making sure their goals are never achieved. Like the better religions on earth, it may have started sincerely and most of today’s membership don’t know they are tools.

Or perhaps it was owned from the start. There are people who actually think Fox News “sold out” or drifted to the left. Ha ha ha.

Oh sure, join the Tea Party! Or maybe ‘Anonymous’ will guide you righteously…

The old “Love” and “Hate” knuckle tattoos reminds me that the “Night of the Hunter” with Robert Mitchum, was filmed in my hometown in West Virginia. I guess that happened because Davis Grubb, the book’s author, lived there.

Sometimes one can gain insight into what a person -or company of persons- believes “they” are about through an examination of their chosen name…Other times they just pick it because they think it sounds cool.

The frightening thing is that there is certainly so much going on in this Obama White House that we don’t know….and no doubt would be outraged to find out. This White House as a working organization could very well be a house of cards….a collapse might just be very dangerous. Much more so than in any previous Administration, because they are now all such nouveau arrivistes, such naifs wielding so much influence so flippantly. They, none of them, have any substantial background…..all summed up with this smug chameleon-rooster we’ve got perched crowing inside our Oval Office.

It’s frightening that the infamous 52% of our voters have been so flippant with their precious votes… and could very well stick it to the Establishment a second time….”just because”.

The startling fact that we’ve got three flagrantly unqualified women, this Valerie Jarret character who seems to be a real old time Chicago “operator”, Hillary, who has deftly parlayed her special connections into becoming Secretary Of State…compare her to any of the the greats of the past, of either party….and most disgustingly….this Susan Rice affirmative-action type “representing” the United States of America at the United Nations…..in traditionally key influential positions….. each one during a time of active warfare with our stalwartly, defiantly unrecognized belligerent enemy..the Muslims and their savage-enticing Koran.

Scary. We’ve got to keep our wits about us. I can’t ever remember any time that we as a Nation have been so vulnerable.

The argument from superior knowledge has been extended to the administration’s dismissal of Israeli worries over Iran. AFP reports that “in remarks seemingly aimed at Israel, the United States said Friday it had ‘eyes’ and ‘visibility’ inside Iran’s nuclear program and would know if Tehran made a ‘breakout’ towards a nuclear weapon.” The source of the administration report was anonymous.

Yes, but if you are Israeli, you have to wonder if that “superior knowledge” is a matter of espionage or collaboration. And if Iran getting a nuclear strike capability would trigger warnings to Tel Aviv, or simply an order to the White House wine cellar to chill several bottles of the finest champagne?

#13 wretchard

My policy on any shooting:

1) Don’t assume any hate group connections or political motivations until we find out more about the witness. You don’t want to wind up like Brian Ross.

2) Do keep track of how the shooting’s being politicized. I say “how,” because it’s inevitable, and in some cases it’s not all that bad. You won’t hear the NRA bemoan the mental health/gun buying law passed after the Virginia Tech shooting.

The reporter to follow for actual facts: Ryan Reilly. The factor to keep track of, if you want to see how conservative media will process this: The Family Research Center’s two-year-old designation as a “hate group,” issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC hasn’t responded to the developments in D.C. (I’ve asked), but I’m already seeing some sputter-and-point reaction blaming them — or just begging the question of blame — for what almost happened.

Some points.

1) As has been mentioned, DC has the strongest anti-firearms laws in the country [you have to be rich and connected, a criminal, or a politician; and yes there is no small overlap, to have a gun], so gun control is a secondary factor.

2) It has been noted in several places other than here that the shooting was buried from the get-go by the news media. Moments after the shooting itself, the blogosphere knew about it. It was an hour later before it hit FOX News, either online or broadcast. It was 2 to 2 1/2 hours later before it hit the wire services or other media; online or broadcast. This was … an anomaly. If it had been a Leftist organization that was hit, there would have been wall to wall coverage from the first.

We do know now that the name of the shooter is Floyd Lee Corkins II of Herndon, Virginia. He is 28 years old and a volunteer at the District of Columbia LGBT Center. Photographers taking pictures of him as he was removed in handcuffs estimate he is 6’2″ and 250 lbs. He is listed as Black, however he is very light skinned and I anticipate the media will dub him a “White African-American” the way they defined George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case as a “White Hispanic” in order to preserve Political Correctness.

3) The reactions of the Left Blogosphere have been especially vehement. There are cries of how it is a false flag operation. They are intermixed with declarations that the attack was deserved, and regrets that only a security guard was shot and not any of the actual staff.

4) I do note that the reactions of the security guard and those in the lobby were inspiring. AFTER being shot, the guard grabbed control of the gun, and took him down with the help of the civilians in the lobby. Contrast that with other sudden shootings. I cannot help but wonder if the nature of the people gathered in that building may have had something to do with it.

Group-think can be deceptive. But both online and with those I have talked with around town; there is a sense that something much larger is looming.

Obama and Valerie Jarrett we do not need yet they will damage us for as long as they are able and we must wait for the American people to fire them.

Outside the wonky world of DC many people have indeed wondered who “they” might be. One kind soul in Missouri solved this problem for all of mankind. In 2004, a Missouri man succeeded in changing his name to They.

The former Andrew Wilson, a 43-year-old self-employed inventor, was granted permission by a circuit judge to change his name. It’s just They, no surname. They said he did it to address the common reference to “they.”

‘”They do this,’ or ‘They’re to blame for that.’ Who is this ‘they’ everyone talks about? ‘They’ accomplish such great things. Somebody had to take responsibility,” he said. Then, having just lost the girl who was the love of his life to a tamale seller:

They, said some day you’ll find
All who love are blind
When you heart’s on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes

I keep expecting to wake up one morning and find the Internet down. The only “news” we’ll have is what is broadcasted or–here and there–printed.

We’ll be told some malware is the culprit and experts hope to restore the Net “soon”.

Divide and conquer. We won’t know who’s where or what’s happening to which of us…

If it hasn’t happened by the day after election day (and R&R are declared winners), I’ll breathe easier, but won’t really feel confident till after January 20.

If the current president wins re-election, however…well.

As for the shooter and the MSM’s handling of it, just imagine their power if the Net ever DOES go down. Such a thing as the shooting will never have happened at all.

This is sort of like living in the ’50s, worrying about Nuclear War, only we don’t have Rod Serling to make Twilight Zone episodes about it–or maybe Fellini. He could’ve done a modern version of his Satyricon, only staring the Lesbians in our (this is so absurd, but it is real) Department of Homeland Security. He could call it “Sapphoricon on ICE”.

subotai @ 39: “But both online and with those I have talked with around town; there is a sense that something much larger is looming.”

The logic of the modern Democratic Party has been demanding an SA since Florida 2000. After all, if Gore “really won” because he embodied the General Will, and if simple arithmetical counting of votes is unjust because it might frustrate the General Will, then, something has to be done, right?

And the thing about paramilitary party formations is, they really work (under the right circumstances). People have already, to an incredible degree, been intimidated into silence. It is reasonable to believe that they can be intimidated into correct voting behavior as well.

The question has been raised elsewhere about whether Obama’s misuses of authority are intentionally provocative – that is, are they trying to start something? And, if they are, is their confidence in the resulting use of force by the security forces misplaced?

I was trying to find a copy of Seven Days in May recently for an O-6 relative, as we were discussing the chain of command and some possible future scenarios, but it’s out of print.

The Left always ultimately produces All Show and No go. Saddled with unworkable ideas of how the world works, that trajectory is inevitable. We know now, for example, that Sputnik 1 was in fact a utter technical failure but an incredible propaganda success. The JFK Admin responded with another propaganda success, Apollo, and things in the space program ultimately went sharply downhill from there.

And ultimately all governments become Leftist. This is as much due to the incessant demands from Special Interest Groups as it is to politicians grabbing for power for its own sake. When you have to handle all of these special deals the end result has to be as much personal freedom as an ant colony.

With the Design Margin gone, the Obama Admin has decided to double down on All Show and No Go. There does not even have to be a Show. Favorable reviews of the Show in the Media will suffice. It’s Springtime for Hitler without either the bother of holding the gala opening night or blowing up the theater.

Interesting piece in NYT today. Surprisingly it’s almost fair-reporter must have had 30 minutes of clarity. For Obama, everything is Chicago local. He cannot fathom that some things need to be on the down low. I guess Fast and Furious deserves complete secrecy but crucial military matter do not.

We talk a lot about moral hazard on Wretchard’s site. And Western societies demand that their physicians swear an hypocratic oath prior to practicing to demonstrate that they recognize the ethical hazards that medical practice entails.

However, those who minister to our virtual, web-based systems face no similar moral reminder, which muddles the ethical framework for practicioners and consumers of IT services alike.

Moral hazard. The Agency Dilemma. Deniability. Un-accountability. Global “health-care” for virtual networks. And along comes a Russian “anti-virus software” company – with a curious access to destructive computer code, that ‘needs’ your help…to help protect you, from viruses.

Put it all together and you’ve got a pungent ethical sewage.

“Alert: Renew your subscription NOW, or you’ll get a virus!” Translates to “Nice hard-drive you’ve got there. It’d be a shame if something were to happen to it.”

I assume that Windows is the virus, keylogging so that everytime you type the word “booger” it encodes an invisible trailer byte to your next DNS packet which is picked up by Carnivore, printed out on greenbar, and stored in a warehouse in Virginia very near the arc of the covenant. And for Ghu’s sake, don’t take the smartphone into the bathroom with you.

u @ 48: They has struck again!

Corzine got the goods on they, heh. But it won’t keep him out of civil court for the rest of his life. Or uncivil court, if you know what I mean. They also don’t like their money disappearing.

Wretchard, an important state-of-affairs that your post raises is the following; the level of sophistication that was required to create the Gauss malware worm is categorically beyond the ability of any bureaucratic (i.e. government) organization to defend against.

To mount a defense against cyber-attacks like this requires the mind of an Alan Turing. But no government agency will ever attract such a person to its service or be able to retain such persons for very long. But a private concern can and will be able to attract such individuals.

I’m reminded of a couple of fellow grad students from my university days that went on to work for a group that went around the world betting on horse races. They used the programming skills they gained from their physics PhD thesis work to create betting algorithms that, on a statistical basis, paid off at the racetrack. But these guys would never-ever-ever-ever work for a government agency; though I could see them getting stoked about the intellectual challenge of creating a software worm of the kind you have described.

The media seems to paint cyber-attacks like this Gauss worm as requiring the combined effort of a large sophisticated group of programmers. But my experience from my physics grad school days says otherwise; that in fact, the Gauss worm could be the work of as few as two or three exceptionally intelligent and motivated individuals.

The point is, the sophistication of such a cyber-attack means that the coming world of cyber-warfare is, by its very nature, now beyond the ability for any of our nations’ security agencies to defend against. But rather it is going to become a battle between small, but highly intelligent, privately funded organizations.

The buzzards are circling over Obama and Company as even more Demoncrats come out and speak against him (Illinois Governor the latest), Long before Sarah Palin mention “Joes gotta go” I’ve been predicting it… I still think if things continue to worsen both Domestically (Gas spikes above $4 a gal and Food prices follow with the Drought) and Internationally (Israel does Iran before the election or forces BH0 to act) there is a very good chance BH0 will do a LBJ!!! Of course this will throw Hildabeast front and center especially if Joe is gone before BH0 does his “I am to sexy for this job” dance out of the White House… Could this finally be the massive collapse of the Demoncrat party that was long ago predicted in previous elections? (Nay) I think there could be war in Asialand in as little as 18 months, Mitt and Paul will have worse situation handed to them then Axle Rod, Rahm (got out when the getting was good!) Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett was given (especially see’n how it was their Demoncrat party that drove the Financial markets off the cliff). Will there be massive rioting come Nov 7th, if there is will the MSM even report it? (ya think so? Read White Girl Bleed a lot) We all know things are bad, are they even worse then we suspect?

Wildiris,
All of which suggests to this layman that we should not be so reliant on computers.

I worked at a rural farm supply during the dot.com boom and the power often went out during heavy weather. Well, we retained the old card-swipers and fill-out receipts and keyed cash-boxes under the counter so that business could continue uninterrupted.

Could the US government do that today? Can the local Walmart? How about you personally; could you return to paying your credit card bill with a hand-written check, an envelope and a gummed stamp? If the internet went dead, how much would it disrupt your personal life?

It is controversial to say it, but I’d argue that this cul-de sac’d dead-end dependency on digital processing, and its resultant psychopathologies, are the real problems. And the proliferation in hackers, anti-viral software providers and the viruses they pretend to ward off are only the symptoms.

“The buzzards are circling over Obama and Company as even more Demoncrats come out and speak against him (Illinois Governor the latest), Long before Sarah Palin mention “Joes gotta go” I’ve been predicting it…”

Obama is very bad for America and must go. Unfortunately he remains 3.5% on the RealClearPolitics average poll, refer to:

Happy talk about buzzards circling around the Won carries no weight until after the RealClearPolitics average poll is greater than 5% in favor of Romney. Even then, Obama has the option of launching a false flag gambit, e.g. against Iran. If done right, a false flag tactic boosts Obama’s popularity by at least 5% as Americans instinctively rally around the President.

There is a smell of August 1914 in the air. It’s like many of us are going through the motions, but with this semi-conscious sense that “this can’t go one much longer”, and that soon the storm that will bring down nations will be upon us. That would be frightening enough; but we have a cadre in the White House who think that they can manipulate events to their liking, and stop the tides at just the right point.

They’re wrong. Events are already spiraling out of anyone’s control, but they in their arrogance, in trying to stop the Storm will instead make it much worse. I fear for our civilization.

The FRC is the real deal. You would do well to get your mother to subscribe to their publications. And if she is dead, pray on her grave that the FRC succeeds in its efforts against the homosexual nazis.

“There is a smell of August 1914 in the air. It’s like many of us are going through the motions, but with this semi-conscious sense that “this can’t go one much longer”, and that soon the storm that will bring down nations will be upon us.”

As one of Belmont Club’s resident doomers, I feel compelled to respond:

It’s more like August 1914, mixed with the Sucker’s Rally of 1930, along with James Buchanan, Jr’s presidency and spiced with Neville Chamberlain’s proclamations about “Peace in our Time”. The historical analogs are all screaming “Doom!”.

Carrying it further, it’s like we’re in a canoe being sucked towards a waterfall, while holding a live hand grenade and feeling the early symptoms of the Bubonic Plague. What’s going to get us first?

The situation is so filled with doom that I almost (not quite) want Obama to win. He’ll be left holding the bag (couldn’t happen to a nicer guy).

By the way, that argument is pure nonsense because it’s vital that we have a competent President to pick up the pieces after TSHTF. Obama is many things but competent is not one of them.

Maineman @ 59:

Dick Morris is on drugs. Romney is a very weak candidate. If Romney does everything right and the economy does not implode before the election then Romney might squeek by if Paul Ryan is incredibly brilliant. If the economy implodes then Romney will win easily assuming that Obama does not exploit a false flag gambit (virtually certain given that Obama is a scumbag).

One thing is for sure: The MSM hyenas will do everything in their power to enable Obama’s reelection.

False flag? Obama? I may have to sicc DHS fake conservative attack dogs on you for Alex Jones deviationism. I hereby summon @ReginaldQuill and @LibertyLynx! Release the hounds of State worshipping ‘conservatism’!

He is listed as Black, however he is very light skinned and I anticipate the media will dub him a “White African-American” the way they defined George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case as a “White Hispanic” in order to preserve Political Correctness.

Well there you go, Subotai! Another mixed race guy whose white side made him go bad. Maybe he and the President ought to have a beer together…